


Hyplophobia

by HideInMyShadow



Series: Prompt Fills [3]
Category: Over the Garden Wall (Cartoon)
Genre: Drabble, F/M, Fear of Death, Fear of Trees/Forests, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Kinda, Writing Prompt, or it should have been
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-22
Updated: 2018-07-22
Packaged: 2019-06-14 15:25:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15391752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HideInMyShadow/pseuds/HideInMyShadow
Summary: Prompt from ghost-rock; Instead of being afraid of water like his family might expect, Wirt gained a fear of trees (more specifically the forest), and no one but Greg knows why. [maybe hurt/comfort with his parents or Greg, or Sara or one of his friends trying to figure out why he’s acting so weird around trees?]After that fateful night in October, the loved ones of the two brothers are trying their best to help them move on...though somehow the problems ahead are very different from what they expected.





	Hyplophobia

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you! This was interesting and filled my time nicely. I kinda wrote it a bit oddly and much longer than I intended but them’s the breaks.  
> Hope you like it!

They had all been prepared for the repercussions, the memories of Halloween and all the possible outcomes chilling them to the bone.

For Wirt’s mother and Greg’s father, their two boys pale, hair damp and knotted, laying still in those hospital beds, would be etched in their hearts forever.  
For Sara and the rest of Wirt’s friends the sickening feeling when they spotted Wirt desperately dragging himself out of the water with his brother only to crumple into the mud haunted them.

They didn’t need a doctor to tell them that Wirt and Greg would have issues with water and Halloween from then on, and thus endeavoured to avoid anything that could hurt them.

Their parents filled Gregs baths to be shallow and warm as possible, overloading on bubbles and bath bombs. The boy had been ecstatic at the range of colours and bubble hills yet baffled his father when he asked for more water, so he could scuba dive for treasure. His mother was equally thrown off by her youngest son’s excited chatter after picking up a leaflet for an aquarium with an underwater tunnel, further confused by the elders encouragement of the idea in lieu of their annual camping trip.

Once winter had passed, and Sara had the chance to listen to the tape Wirt had bashfully admitted to spending over a week creating, she made sure to invite and persuade Wirt to go out with her or their friends as often as possible. Safe in the knowledge that they all agreed long ago to avoid the lake, pools or any body of water.  
As such none of them where sure what to make of Wirt’s fumbled suggestion to hang out by the local pool on a particularly hot day rather than walk in the woods. Though ready to leave at any moment Sara found herself watching Wirt happily relaxing under an umbrella, feet dangling in the water with book in hand. With little prompting Wirt had stepped into the cooling waters far more than anyone expected, even taking a moment to float on his back, lazily keeping his eye on Greg chasing his beloved frog through the shallows.

Needless to say it was a shock.

To those around them, Wirt and Greg had move on from their near-death experience with little difficulty. As months passed their worries settled and allowed them to breathe just that bit easier.

The truth, as they later found out, wasn’t so simple.

* * *

When Wirt had received the invitation for him and Greg to a small end of school house party, he had been far from excited about the whole idea. In fact it had taken the team effort of his mum and step-dad along with Greg and his kinda-probably-still-working-things-out-girlfriend Sara to get him to accept it in the first place.

If only he’d paid more attention to the address.

“Um…are you okay Wirt?”

“H-huh?”

“It’ll be alright you know, we can just go in for like ten minutes and leave if you want?”

Sara, right Sara was next to him- a small hand lightly squeezed his own- Greg was also there, thank goodness. They were both next to him and both watching him just standing there like an idiot in front of the nice house. A nice house that was host to a cosy but busy barbecue that they had all been invited to and just happened to be backed up by a few trees.

 _Quite_ a few trees.

 **_A lot of trees_ ** _._

Too many trees all huddled close together, branches stretching out blocking the sun and creating an endless stretch of darkness beneath their twisted figures, shadows flickering and misshapen. He could feel them crowding around, their tall imposing structures looming, roots writhing and beckoning, filling the open space to claw, snare entrap, just waiting to drag him back to-

“Let’s go home.”

A breathe released, eyes just managing to rip away from the forest. His heart was racing, stomach tangled as acid rouse to his strangled windpipe, the small tremors throughout his body and clamminess of his skin becoming far more noticeable now that he had the chance to notice. But through it all was Greg, standing at his side eyes clear and certain as he firmly but carefully pulled Wirt away from the house.

“Greg?” Sara called, glancing between the two and the house prepared to follow them back into town when Wirt his head jerked back to her.

“It’s fine. Tell the others I couldn’t make it.“ he said quickly, speech halting and awkward.

The two brothers left without another word, Wirt focusing on Greg’s steady ongoing story about a cool bird he saw yesterday and not the prickling feeling of the woods sightless eyes watching his retreat.

Sara watched them leave, questions caught in her throat and feet frozen. She didn’t know what had just happened but the way Wirt had looked at the house…she couldn’t help but think he looked like he was drowning.

* * *

From then on Sara was on the look out. She noticed that Wirt would take the long way anywhere, sticking to places far from the edge of town and circling around any park. On a date to the theatre she was suddenly redirected from one side of the road to the other, with little explanation other than ‘there’s more sun on that side’. Wirt would back out of commitments last minute after getting more details, fumble and stutter when they lingered too long in one place and avoid eye-contact. It took a while but soon enough she found a common link.

And when she knew what it was she was even more confused.

Wirt was avoiding…trees?

It was something that she just couldn’t make sense of no matter how hard she tried. Did they remind him of Halloween somehow? Maybe being under them was like being under water? But then he wouldn’t be able to swim. Because they climbed a tree in the graveyard before falling in the lake?

Frustrated and needing some way to help and understand her boyfriend (who was still too nervous and unsure to let himself admit that he _was_ her boyfriend), she carefully brought up the subject with her friends. Sadly none of them had a clue and neither did Wirt’s parents when asked. The only one who knew anything was Greg and he wasn’t as forthcoming as she had hoped.

“Wirt said that it would be too weird to explain so he doesn’t want anyone else to know why he doesn’t like trees,” the little boy stared up at her for a moment seeming to think carefully before returning to his task of dressing his strangely cooperative frog. “but I think if you ask him he might be okay with it. He really likes talking. At least I think that’s what his poem meant.”

* * *

“Wirt, I don’t want to push you or anything but…if you ever want to talk about y’know, stuff, I’d be happy to help you with it.”

Wirt looked up from his homework, Sara giving him a look he couldn’t quite understand. Something in him tightened.

“Stuff? What stuff? Is there something we should be talking about?”

Sara sighed, shaking her head and taking his hand gently before looking right at him.

“Wirt, you need to talk to me about the tree thing. Or at least tell me there is a tree thing so I don’t end up scaring you.”

The poet paled, eyes moving all around the room in an effort to escape the conversation.

“I’m not! I mean, there isn’t a tree thing. Why would there be? It’s not like they can move or grab you or tangle around your body until- okay maybe there is a tree thing.”

After a beat of silence Sara shuffled to Wirt's side, softly guiding his head to her shoulder and leaning her own into his hair. He seemed tense but the gesture seemed to loosen his shoulders just a bit. Gentle petting his hair she decided to ask again.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Wirt frowned staring down at their linked hands with a shrug.

“Yes. Not really. It’s…hard to explain.“

Sara nodded, waiting for him to continue.

With a deep breath words began to tumble out of Wirt.  
“They’re just- I mean. I keep rem- thinking about how the branches feel tangling around me and sometimes I swear they have faces or I can see the- can see something behind them and I just-! Urgh, this sounds stupid!”

“No it doesn’t sound stupid. Fear is weird not dumb” Sara scoffed with a firm pat on his head. “I know you Wirt, you probably have a good reason to be scared.”

Finding himself unable to argue Wirt sighed heavily, leaning more into his companion. He wanted to talk about it, and Sara was someone he felt he could tell almost anything to at this point but…well, he doubted his tales of the Unknown would be considered a simple explanation. Having Greg know the full story was good enough but having someone else understand the fear inside him was something he’d needed for a while now.

He couldn’t _not_ talk about this but he couldn’t tell the truth…maybe he could just alter it?

“…When me and Greg fell in the water there was, um, roots? Or branches- I’m not sure it was kinda blurry. When we were sinking I must have got caught up in them for a moment and-….I couldn’t think. Greg was **gone** and they were _everywhere_ and then when I managed to move he was tangled up too and– I-I thought it was going to take him, both of us! I guess I just panicked and suddenly it wasn’t just a dead tree anymore it was…it was a Beast and I…”

He hadn’t realised he was crying until tissues were being shoved in his face. Wirt accepted them, grateful at the gesture and to distraction to stop him from slipping up in his story.

“Alright, I think I get it. Wow Wirt, that sounds awful. You’re really brave you know that?“

Face heated at the compliment Wirt felt a brief moment of confidence and pulled Sara into a full on hug, a quick peck on the cheek added in before he could think about it.

“Thank’s Sara. You’re really…really the best.“

A little flushed in the cheeks herself, Sara tightened the enbrace with a smile.

“Want to ditch homework watch some trashy movies?”

Wirt chuckled weakly.

“Yeah, yeah that sounds great.”

**Author's Note:**

> There! Waaaay longer than I intended and I’m not sure if I wrote Sara right but I think I’m happy with this for a one off! I’ve never really had a chance to write Wirt and Sara together and they are damn cute. Thanks again for the prompt!


End file.
